NPS Round 5 – Innerleithen

After the SDA rain the field at inners had been completely swampified making the parking spaces tight. We arrived at about 8 on Friday evening to be pleasantly surprised by Mr Paton showing us our nice big trade pitch and we set up camp. As it was too dark to walk the track I just had to have a slow roll down in the morning to see the lines.

The start was the same as the SDA going out of the hut and down the long straight over roots and mud. Turning right and then left over rocks and some big roots led you down the quarry and over the road gap. Here you disappear into dense forest and the change in light gives you that 4 second period where you fell blind. Round to the left at 500 mph and over some dodgy looking roots which nearly wiped out John. Through some open rooty sections and you go right across the mountain through tight trees, over roots and down some dodgy sections of off camber and down to the second fire road crossing.

Pinning over the road there is a huge gap in between the landing which there was much contemplation over about whether or not anyone would huck it. Donny did it on Saturday in seeding and the only other time I saw anyone try to make it was following John in practice where he landed on the grass and got a bit too sketchy for his own liking. Round to the left and here you carry on along the side of the mountain winding up and down round some tight trees and across some of the UK’s finest off camber sections.

A left hander and a flat pedal leads you into the arena at the bottom. Here you go round some steep switch-backs and over some flat corners with slidy roots. Down into the elevator drop and round an off camber right hand corner leads over the road and a sprint through the finish line finishes your run.

After crashing in seeding I waited a while to make sure I was first junior down. In my run I had no traffic ahead of me and had no pressure of riders around me. This gave me some more confidence and I went for it. Only making minor line mistakes I had a good run and I’d say I felt fast. I was in the hot-seat for a while and in the end I came 17th among a stacked field of junior riders. Not a bad way to end the season. 3 mins 23.156 was my time and the fastest time of the team. Scarborough next to represent my home county in North Yorkshire should be a good last race for me.